A Party Made Better
by DustInTheLight
Summary: Just a mild fluffy one-shot of Wanda and Vision musing over their pasts during a dance.


Wanda Maximoff truly resented parties.

She stood in front of a floor-length mirror in a crimson dress that hugged her figure too tightly to be comfortable. It pinched and squeezed enough to form the 'perfect female figure', something she assumed had been picked out for her by Miss Potts. It certainly made her look nice, but she could live without the revealing of her cleavage. In an attempt to mask her discomfort, she slipped into a black cardigan and some glittering necklaces. She gazed into the mirror and gently traced her fingertips over the reflection of herself.

"Stark, I truly resent you sometimes."

* * *

The party was bustling and full of drunk, pompous folk; all powerbrokers Stark hoped to suck up to in his continuous effort to convince them of the Avengers' innocence. Wanda spent a large amount of time drifting around the corners of the room, clutching an untouched cup of punch between her fingers. Natasha tailed her for a while, keeping a close eye on the newbie in the tower. The two girls had found it rough to come to know each other; Natasha had found it more difficult than the others in the tower to accept Wanda's apology for invading her mind back when working under Ultron. However, as time went on, a sense of solidarity and a tentative friendship had formed. The Black Widow seemed protective over this new witch. She was controlling during training sessions and made sure that if she was ever knocked down, she received proper medical care. Wanda appreciated her close eye, knowing that Natasha only meant the best for her, but the feeling of being watched was increasing her anxiety more than she appreciated.

Desperate for any other company, Wanda scanned the room. Relief flooded through her when she spotted Vision, standing quietly on the opposite side of the room, watching the party in a gentle silence. She knew that most would probably avoid the android for fear of not knowing who or what he was; she knew the feeling well from his early days of creation. Holding her breath, she drifted through various twirling couples to Vision's side and offered him her hand. He looked up at her with slight confusion, but gratitude for her company.

"May I have this dance?" she asked. Something akin to tentative joy flickered to live in his eyes, and he smiled as he took her hand.

"Of course." He led her carefully onto the dancefloor and Wanda placed her hand on his shoulder as he placed his on her waist. A new song was just beginning, and his face flashed with slight regret.

"I may not be the best dancing partner."

"Oh, hush," Wanda smiled reassuringly, rubbing his shoulder with her thumb."You'll do just fine." She started leading him, softly counting under her breath so he could keep in time. He stepped on her toe a few times accidentally, for which he profusely apologised. She waved away any mishaps and continued the dance, determined to make him more comfortable. Time did indeed ease the pressure off of his shoulders. Wanda could almost see the weight lifting from him as he grew in confidence enough to slowly take over the lead. They danced in silence for a while afterwards, until Vision broke the silence.

"Miss Maximoff, you look wonderful tonight," he mused. Wanda smiled coyly, and looked down from his face to stare at his chest, too shy to meet his gaze.

"You know, you can call me Wanda."

"I… alright, Wanda."

"Thank you." Wanda knew that Vision was probably dead-set in his Jarvis politeness, but she much preferred the side of Vision that he occasionally revealed to her during a quiet evening of gentle conversation by the fire. Her heart thumped in her chest as his gaze drowned her.

"Are you enjoying yourself?" came his soft voice after another moment of silence.

"Yeah," she lied in response, avoiding his gaze as their dancing continued on to the next song.

"You aren't." Vision's voice was still gentle and polite, but Wanda easily recognised a hint of sternness in his voice.

"How- well, no. I've never been one to enjoy parties that much."

"Might I ask why?"

Wanda hesitated.

"You might. I can't say for sure if you'll get an answer you enjoy hearing."

"I enjoy nearly everything you say, miss- Wanda."

Another hesitation. He always managed to fluster her.

"Well… they bring me nothing but bitterness and painful memories. Back in Sokovia, Pietro and I found ourselves more often than not on the streets, trying to scrounge up the funds for a scrap of food or a spare bit of soup. We'd drink well water or venture into the forest past the city to drink from the river if we had to. We had nothing, and whenever we were caught and put into foster care, it was somehow worse than whenever we were fending for ourselves."

"Did they…"

"No, Vizh, they weren't… physically abusive. More emotionally neglectful. We were suffering, and angry, very angry."

"Angry?" Vision furrowed his brow, his thumb tenderly stroking her waist as he attempted to comfort her. He always knew when she was getting upset, bless his heart. Wanda looked down once more, before her gaze crawled back up to meet his.

"We'd just lost our parents and when we were so close to joining them and being killed ourselves, we had the torture of three days imprisonment in the rubble of our own home, knowing that the corpses of our mother and father were lying somewhere below us in ashes. There was hardly anything left of them to bury, when we were eventually rescued. We saw nothing but Tony Stark's name and white terror for weeks afterwards."

"The pair twirled as the song changed to one with a slightly quicker pace. Vision's hold lightly tightened, holding her safely to protect her in case she might lose her footing. Wanda smiled at his effort, before continuing.

"Our first foster parents didn't understand our trauma. They had seen the bombings, of course, but they lived in an area of the city which had remained relatively untouched and so knew nothing of the true scale of things… nothing of the fear that one feels in such a situation. They were dismissive and scolded us when we wept. They believed the best way to recover would just be to forget and move on."

"That's awful…"

"It was. They were nice people, always made sure we were warm and fed, but they lacked any and all empathy towards us. It almost seemed at times like they didn't want children. They were always so… I don't know."

Vision gently pulled her closer as they swayed to and fro.

"I think I know what you mean… but how does that equate to hating parties?"

"We were barely scraping by with nothing and yet there were people dancing their lives away without a care in the world. It was repulsive to us and remains such to this day. Losing Pietro has only deepened that hatred."

"Pietro meant everything to you," Vision observed.

"He was."

A pang of pain hit Wanda's chest and she touched her head to Vision's chest. He nuzzled her hair and warmth filled the hole opening up in her heart.

"I believe I felt a similar pain after my creation, although I do know that it must have been far more difficult on you, going through such a time of loss, especially when coupled with the fact that you were so young."

"Eleven, when we escaped from that first home…"

"Too young for that burden."

Vision lifted Wanda up into the air and twirled them together along with the music. She yelped and laughed, wrapping her arms around his chest as she landed. The two of them shared a soft chuckle as they continued their dance, this time locked in an embrace. Both of them stepped on each other's toes increasingly frequently but neither could find much will to care. Vision pressed a gentle kiss to Wanda's head before he continued his story.

"I often felt shut out in my first few weeks of life. Mr Stark was the only one who whole-heartedly believed in me. Thor I knew understood me in a way nobody else did, and I appreciate how he understood that I'd be a safe keeper both of the Mind stone and even of myself. He understood that I wouldn't take the same path as Ultron."

"I'm sorry for accusing you of such," Wanda murmured. "I didn't know what to make of you at first."

"Ultron hurt you more than most of the people in this building and you had a direct look into his mind," Vision reminded her. "You had more right than anyone to fear me."

"You took it remarkably well." She looked up at him now, a slight smirk spread across her face. He snickered and touched his forehead to hers as he continued their dance, although their pace had slowed considerably.

"I merely requested a second chance…"

"And you got one. I really did look again, you know."

"You did?" Vision sounded genuinely surprised at that. He lifted his head a little and watched her curiously. Wanda shrugged, moving one hand to his chest and tracing the folds in his suit.

 _He looks so nice in a tux..._

"Yes. You are rather… compelling to me."

Vision cocked his head to one side, wordlessly asking for elaboration. Wanda's heartbeat was thrumming like a dragonfly's wings. She was drowning in him.

"You… see humanity, the world, in a light I've never seen before. When I look into people's heads, I usually see… pain. Everyone's fighting their own battle, everyone's had their own nightmares. Everyone has demons. That isn't all people think about, of course; lots of time people think about money, fame, sex… Sometimes I would catch someone thinking those things about me."

"That sounds… vile." His arms tightened around her protectively. Wanda smiled weakly at that, placing her head against his chest.

"It's normal to me."

"It shouldn't have to be. You deserve more."

Wanda smiled and broke apart their embrace, holding his hands in her own. She gently led him outside, onto the balcony, before sitting on the edge to overlook the city beyond. Vision sat beside her, wrapping an arm around her waist. Wanda told herself it was just for her protection in case she should fall, but a small piece of her knew that it was something more.

"Wanda, I want you to know that I appreciate all you've done for me."

Vision nuzzled her hair gently and Wanda blushed.

"I haven't done much."

"You've kept me company in a place where most people think I shouldn't have been created in the first place. You've taught me things I would otherwise have not known, and thus would have made a fool of myself, such as the… various door incidents."

Her blush grew darker as she recalled numerous incidents of utter shock and embarrassment at Vision's expense, as he phased right through doors only to encounter Wanda in the middle of changing outfits, or about to get into the shower, or even sleeping. She gently pushed him onto his back and followed suit so she lay across his chest, and looked down at him with a gentle smile.

"Well… it's been my pleasure. As I said," she murmured, punctuating her words with a soft kiss. "You're rather compelling to me."

* * *

 **Author's Note:**

 _Well... here I am. It's been far too long for me to write anything again. I'm enjoying living each day as it comes and writing whatever comes to my mind rather than stressing about larger projects. Today I listened to some of The Count of Monte Cristo and got inspired to write Wanda and Vision at a dance... it all flowed without much thought or structure and I haven't proofread it so it's likely full of errors and formatted terribly, but truthfully I don't much care. I enjoyed writing this and I hope you can get some enjoyment out of reading it. I love Wanda and Vision dearly and I wish we got to see more of their relationship forming in the movies, but sadly not. Fanfiction will have to do lmao._

 _Of course, I don't own anything, etc etc_


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